Here’s a link to some new notes & photos on the Grape-Nutz website from a late November visit to some wineries and vineyards in Amador and El Dorado Counties:
Sierra Foothills - November '09
Visits included:
Convergence Vineyards
Jeff Runquist Wines
Domaine de la Terre Rouge Wines / Easton Wines
Holly’s Hill Vineyards
Mount Aukum Winery
Perry Creek Winery
Cedarville Vineyard
Great report and pictures, Ken… thanx… I need to get to Holly’s Hill next time I’m in the area.
Another fine report Ken. Great photos too. The Holly’s Hill pic will be my current wallpaper.
Ken and company.
Thanks for the visit, kind words and helping to promote our wine region. You’ are always welcome.
Josh Bendick
Holly’s Hill Vineyards
As aways, great write-up Ken! I’m very envious of your dinner at Jonathan & Susan’s house - great company with great views, the location they picked to build is amazing.
Sounds like we will need to make a stop at Perry Creek when we do our yearly trip to the area in the spring.
BTW - any reason why you guys skipped Muraflores? I keep getting recommendations to check them out…
Thanks, Josh! Always a pleasure to visit Holly’s Hill, and great to see you posting here!
Miraflores is definitely worth checking out. We only skipped them because we were tight on time and we’d stopped there a year earlier: Sierra Foothills - November '08
Welcome Josh, hope to see more posts from you.
Nice job Ken. That’s my home turf, and you still get around the area more than I do. Since you mention Easton’s Eschen bottling, I wonder if you know what’s become of that vineyard. I haven’t seen it on anyone’s bottles recently. Renamed? Taken out?
BTW if you are looking for dinner recommendations the next time you are in the area, the automatic response from anyone you ask should be Taste in Plymouth. So good, you’ll forget you are in Plymouth.
Stewart, Easton labels their Zin from Eschen as “Rinaldi-Eschen”. I believe the vineyard was sold some years ago, accounting for the name change. But I don’t know any details about that, or who else may be getting fruit from there these days. As far as I know, the vineyard is still there. I’ll see if I can find out more info on that.
I’ve been to Taste a couple of times - it was highly recommended by several people in the area, and it’s an outstanding place for dinner. Most in our group when we’ve had dinner there thought that Taste is a standout restaurant even by Bay Area standards.
Taste is really 1st rate across the board. personally i can’t drive E on Shenandoah Rd without stopping @ Noceto but i am fool for Sangiovese.
Glenn, I agree about Vino Noceto - I like their wines but others in the group I was with in November were not so interested in stopping there that day.
Regarding Eschen Vineyard, I contacted Bill Easton and got loads of infomation back from him. First, the basics from Bill:
Chet Eshen bought it in 1972 from a member of the Esola family - Bill noted that there are several branches of this family, which also owns the old Esola vineyard in the area. Chet Eschen sold it to Gino Rinaldi in 2000. Currently the only other winery buying fruit from the vineyard is Rombauer, which takes the young vine fruit along with some old vine for their Fiddletown Zin. Turley bought some old vine fruit for awhile but no longer does. For their Zinfandel, Easton takes the old vine fruit only. This year they did take some young vine for a “Zinfandel Essence” late harvest wine, picked at 38-40˚ brix (12% RS. est. - 14% alc. est.).
Bill then got back to me with “probably more than you want to know”! For those with a few minutes, this is great stuff on the history of Sierra Foothills Zinfandel vineyards. Bill wanted to make sure I credit Eric Costa who Bill says did the extensive research at the State Library. Thanks to Bill Easton for all this great information!
Red Wine-Red Soil
Zinfandel in the Sierra Foothills
The golden poppy, the grizzly bear, a serpentinite boulder, and a gold
nugget all fall under the category of those things chosen to represent
California. Of late several groups have tried to add the Zinfandel
grape to the list, but have so far been unsuccessful. Certainly if
a state wine grape was to be recognized, the Zinfandel grape is as
likely a choice as any. During the last twenty years or so, much has
been written about the arrival of Zinfandel in California. Fortunately
wine historian Charles Sullivan has put most of the old legends and
myths concerning the grape out of their misery. Sullivan has firmly
established that the Zinfandel grape came to California from New
England, where it had been grown as a hot-house table grape since
the 1830s.
The purpose of this article, however, is not to discuss the arrival of
Zinfandel in California, but to elaborate on its history in the foothills
of the Sierra Nevada. Sullivan has already shown that during the
1850s, Zinfandel was introduced into the Sacramento area by several
of the state’s most prominent pioneer nurserymen. Sacramento’s
A. P. Smith, who operated his famous “Pomological Garden” on the
American River, is credited as being among the first to cultivate the
grape in California. In fact, some of the earliest documentation of the
grape in California refers to Smith’s “Zeinfindall” that was exhibited
at the state fair in 1858. Beginning very early, Smith established
strong ties to the foothill region. By 1856 Smith had opened a satellite
nursery in Placerville, where an extensive collection of grapes were
offered. Smith’s influence extended to other portions of the foothills
as well. In 1859, one G.M. Millar, a gardener who had gained experience
working for Smith was cultivating grapes and fruit trees near
Murphys in Calaveras County.
One of the earliest residents of the foothills known to have planted
the Zinfandel grape is James Nickerson who lived at Doty’s Ravine
in Placer County (3 miles northeast of Lincoln). Nickerson was
Placer County’s leading pioneer vineyardist, and by 1857 had set
out some 5,000 grape vines. In his grape collection, which included
some 52 varieties, was the “Black Finfindal” (sic). In the fall of 1865
Nickerson began to sell some 40,000 rooted vine cutting that he had
propagated himself. The Zinfandel grape probably among them. Also
located in Placer County was George W. Applegate who operated a
nursery at Lisbon (now Applegate) in the late 1850s. Both Nickerson
and Applegate had acquired their Zinfandel cuttings from the pioneer
Sacramento agriculturist Wilson G. Flint some time after 1855.
Applegate was mainly interested in growing table grapes, and shortly
thereafter gave up on Zinfandel. Nickerson continued to work with
the variety, and in 1872 entered Zinfandel wine in a statewide competition.
In Amador County, the earliest person known to have cultivated Zinfandel
is Dr. Samuel Page. He established the variety at Tunnel Hill
south of Jackson prior to 1859. Page planted a large collection of
grapes among which was a variety then known as the Black St. Peters,
having since been proven to be an early name for Zinfandel.
Representing the northern mines was J. E. Marshall of Grass Valley,
Nevada County. When visited by a committee of traveling farmers in
1860, Marshall’s small hillside garden was reported to contain fruit
trees, and several varieties of grapes, including the “Black Zinfindal”
In El Dorado County, the Zinfandel grape was exhibited for the first
time at the agricultural fair in 1862. That year, Coloma vintner Martin
Allhoff displayed 10 bunches of “Zinfendel Grapes,” but no wine.
A final early example of Zinfandel in the foothills is the V. A. Crow
ranch in Tuolumne County, where in 1865 could be found “Tin Tindal”
among some 25 other varieties.
Prior to about the mid 1860s, most of the Zinfandel in the Sierra
foothills was grown in experimental plots along with dozens of other
mostly long forgotten varieties. It was around this time however, that
grape growers in the foothills were being recognized for their willingness
to produce small experimental batches of wine from a wide
variety of grapes. Most winemakers in California were still content to
produce sweet, inferior wines from the Mission grape. It was not until
the 1880s that the Mission variety no longer accounted for the lion’s
share of the wines produced in California. In an effort to discover a
superior wine grape, in 1865 Benjamin Bugbey of the Natoma Vineyard
(near Folsom), produced some 19 wines from as many varieties
of grapes. Of the group, Bugbey recommended the Black Zinfindel,
Red Traminer, White Malaga and Verdelho for future cultivation.
The Verdelho he felt made the best wine, while the Black Zinfindel
produced the largest crop. Reportedly, the results of Bugbey’s trials
greatly stimulated the propagation of foreign (non Mission) grape
varieties in the foothills. In fact, Bugbey himself sold some 200,000
grape cuttings during the planting season in the winter of 1867.
(END OF PART ONE)
Eric Costa
Zinfandel in the Sierra Foothills - Part 2
The first exclusively Zinfandel vineyards began to appear in
the foothills during the late 1860s. Some of these vineyards
were established in the Shenandoah Valley of Amador County.
Swiss born Adam Uhlinger settled in the valley in 1864,
and planted his first vines shortly thereafter. Within a very
few years, varietal Zinfandel wines could be found ageing
in cellars across the gold country. In Columbia, for instance,
Tuolumne County pioneer vintner Charles Parsons produced
a Zinfandel wine in 1868. Four years later, reporters from the
Tuolumne Independent tasted Parson’s wine directly from
several “mammoth casks,” and found it to be quite good. In
1869, Louis Seibert, who operated a winery and soda works
in Nevada City, received one of the first awards given to a
Zinfandel wine.
By the grape planting boom of the 1880s, the Zinfandel was
the grape of choice for Sierra winegrowers. One of the largest
plantings of this period was Henry Mette’s celebrated
“Red Bank Vineyard” near Mormon Island in El Dorado
County (now under Folsom Lake.) Mette, who was originally
from Germany, and came to California during the Gold
Rush, planted some 75 acres to wine grapes, most of which
were Zinfandel. By 1884, he was producing around 20,000
gallons of Zinfandel wine each vintage. Another Zinfandel
vineyard of note was established east of Jackson by Anthony
Caminetti. In January of 1884, Caminetti had 100,000 rooted
Zinfandel vines and cuttings shipped in from Napa County.
For a time his vineyard was the largest in Amador County.
In 1888 and 1889, samples of Caminetti’s grapes were sent
to the University of California where they were used in experiments
with wines representative of the state’s principal
grape growing regions. The wine produced from Caminetti’s
Zinfandel was thought to differ from that being produced in
the Central Valley, being much lower in tannin, and “more
of the claret type.”
Toward the end of the 1880s, Zinfandel planting reached a
break-neck pace. In 1886, John J. Davis, a pioneer cooper
and winegrower set out 3,000 Zinfandel cuttings on his fruit
ranch in the Shenandoah Valley. Also keeping busy during
this same period were several Italian vineyardists who
were active in the neighborhood of Sutter Creek. Luigi Ferdinando,
A. Botto, and G. B. Vicini all planted Zinfandel
vineyards in March of 1887. During harvest of that same
year, Peter Muller was crushing a large quantity of Zinfandel
grapes that had been grown at D.T. Hall’s vineyard near
Shingle Springs. Muller’s “Tiger Lily” winery was located
east of Diamond Springs in El Dorado County. In Placerville,
the Varozza brothers also planted Zinfandel, and sold
the wine at their Oasis Saloon on Main Street.
The planting craze lasted well into the early 1890s. In 1891,
Uriah Stroup who grew wine grapes near Mette’s Red Bank
Vineyard planted 10,000 additional Zinfandel vines on his
ranch. While his neighbors were occupied planting Tokay
grapes for shipping, Stroup remained faithful to Zinfandel.
Following the agricultural depression of the 1890s, planting
resumed during the early 1900s, and continued, at a somewhat
slower pace, into the early years of Prohibition.
Several notable vineyards established between 1900 and
1915 are still producing. In Calaveras County wine is still
produced from Zinfandel grown at the Ghirardelli Vineyard
near Wallace. The Dal Porto, Esola, Lubenko, and Massoni
Vineyards of Amador County were all established in this period.
During the first few years of Prohibition, grape prices skyrocketed,
as home winemaking became a national pastime.
The Ostrom, later Eschen Vineyard, near Fiddletown, the
Dixon (Baldinelli) Vineyard in the Shenandoah Valley, and
the Cassinelli Vineyard, southeast of Sutter Creek, were actually
planted during Prohibition. Just one year after repeal,
in 1934, the Aparicio Vineyard was established on an island
of boulder strewn volcanic soil on Ridge Road, southeast of
Sutter Creek.
In 1936, Amador County led the foothills in acres devoted
to Zinfandel, coming in with around 390. Placer County
was a close second, with 380 acres. Calaveras contained
117 acres, and El Dorado and Nevada each contained 60.
Following Prohibition, the counties where the influence of
the Italians remained the strongest stayed committed to Zinfandel.
In 1937, Placer County contained 14 wineries, 10 of
which were operated by Italian families. All three operating
wineries in Amador County were in the care of Italians. In
Amador, apparently another factor came into play in helping
to preserve Zinfandel acreage. The phylloxera root louse
was late to arrive, and once it did, it was slow in attacking
the vineyards. Today Amador County still contains the most
acres devoted to Zinfandel in the Sierra foothills.
Eric Costa
From “Old Vines” by historian Eric Costa:
Page 31b -32
Legendre was operating a bakery and restaurant in Fiddletown in 1867. Sometime after 1870, he began making wine on his ranch that was located about a half mile North of Fiddletown. Legendre’s 4-acre vineyard was apparently know earlier as the Cox vineyard, and had been planted prior to the 1869 township survey . “Cox’s Ranch” appears on the 1866 county map. Legendre was still making wine in 1885, when his winery and ranch were listed in a directory of county businesses. The former site of Legendre’s vineyard, is today the site of the Eschen (now the Rinaldi) Vineyard.
Costa also wrote about the age of the Downing/Grandpere Vineyard, and estimates it was actually planted sometime between 1900 and 1925, and not dating to the 19th century as is often believed.
I believe Costa in recent research has redated and documented the Uhlinger/Sobon Estate from 1852 to 1862-4 or so. You would have to contact him for the exact date from his document.
Wow, great work. Thanks Ken. I guess I should preface any question with “If you happen to know off the top of your head…”
Thx Ken - really fun to read.
My go to winery in the valley as well.